Headline News

Thirteen months ago, about 200 people at the Lafayette Veterans Hall heated to a slow boil as community activists railed about Plan Bay Area, the regional growth and land-use strategy that emphasizes more housing near public transit...So how do you explain what happened at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, when it came time to give the so-called housing element its final review? There were only three people in the audience -- four, if you include me -- and nary a pitchfork in sight.

...Fearing that the steel-plate slowdown that festered through the Friday commute, extending all the way to the toll plaza, could drag on through the end of the year, Caltrans said Sunday evening that it had removed the plates until engineers could figure out how to do necessary work without impacting traffic so severely.

You're nearing the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge during afternoon rush hour in Marin, stuck in bumper-to-bumper eastbound traffic. You see the car in front of you take the San Quentin exit. Then, as you scan the road ahead, you see that same car re-enter the freeway ahead of you via the onramp.

...As a retired critical care nurse, I have spent a lot of time in the back of ambulances. One day I was appalled to see people's behavior on the road toward an ambulance with lights and sirens (Code 3). Contrary to popular opinion, the county does not allow ambulances to start their lights and sirens without a reason, and the crew must report whenever they upgrade their status.

A construction project on the Bay Bridge's western span has been suspended after commuters experienced significant delays on Friday, Caltrans officials announced Sunday. The project was set to replace six expansion joints on the bridge's upper deck and place steel plates on the roadway to accommodate the work, Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus said.

...A close look at the projects that would be funded by Prop. A shows the overall plan calls for reducing miles of traffic lanes for cars, removing an unknown number of parking spaces and reducing stops on several Muni lines to enable the buses to cross town faster. The biggest chunk — $142 million — would go into new traffic signals, crosswalks and other projects to speed Muni and make it safer to cross the street.

Under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Clean Diesel Rebate program, public and private school bus fleet owners are eligible to apply for funding to replace school buses that have older, dirtier Diesel engines.

As we saw firsthand during our nine-month Future of Transportation series, U.S. cities are working toward more balanced mobility systems that offer a range of reliable trip options. But just how many Americans take advantage of these options on a regular basis? It's a tough question to answer with much precision, but it just got a lot easier with a new study from Virginia Tech scholars Ralph Buehler and Andrea Hamre—one of the first of its kind based on a representative national population.

...In sum, delays are a huge dead weight on the economy. In the same study, the FAA found that in 2007, late flights cost the U.S. some $31.2 billion—with more than half that amount footed by passengers. There's also an environmental cost, as long-taxiing planes burn wastefully through fuel. Yet when it comes to controlling the sources of delays, it's tough going. You can't change inclement weather, and most airlines overbook as a policy. Nor can you always predict a last-minute repair or faulty landing—all of which can have a domino effect on other departures and arrivals.

...On Thursday, the New York State attorney general said most Airbnb listings in the city violated zoning and other laws. Officials in California and Pennsylvania recently warned car services like Uber and Lyft that they might be unlawful. And workers’ rights advocates have questioned whether the people who provide these services should receive benefits, spurred by recent reports that some Homejoy house cleaners are homeless.